Je ne regrette rien ...
I.
Does anyone else remember the Dead Kennedys hardcore classic 'Religious Vomit'?
It was the first track on the eight-track EP In God We Trust, Inc. and I believe it opened with the lines:
All religions make me want to throw up
All religions make me sick
All religions make me want to throw up All religions suck
It's a succinct but nonetheless powerful critique of all nausea-inducing systems of belief that claim to possess a divine form of Truth and to act in the name of God.
II.
I immediately thought of this song when reading about the case of a French teen who has been forced into hiding after remarks she made online sparked rape and death threats.
The pretty 16-year-old, known as Mila, who described Islam as a religion of hate and claimed all organised creeds made her sick, has been warned by the police not to attend her school in Southeast France and to keep a low public profile - even though, according to French law, she has done nothing wrong and so shouldn't have to restrict her freedom of movement due to the disgusting threats made by religious lunatics.
Nor, of course, should she apologise for her remarks: freedom of speech is the freedom to offend and to blaspheme; the freedom enjoyed by Jello Biafra and the boys back in the day and which we should all cherish, protect, and insist upon as infinitely more important than the false right of hypersensitive believers not to be offended.
Play: Dead Kennedys, 'Religious Vomit', In God We Trust, Inc., (Alternative Tentacles, 1981): click here.
Note: The DK logo is by Winston Smith
Note: The DK logo is by Winston Smith
